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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647543">this is what we’ve waited for</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurmatisse/pseuds/fleurmatisse'>fleurmatisse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Background Saileen, Fix-It, M/M, the finale has been taken out back and shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:02:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647543</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurmatisse/pseuds/fleurmatisse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He lifts his hand to say goodbye, the street around them repopulated with people who won’t know they were missed, and before Dean says it, he hears it.<br/><i>Cas?</i><br/>Hesitant, hopeful, tinged with dread.<br/>Gruffer spoken aloud: “What about Cas?”<br/>Jack smiles at him. “Everything will be back the way it should be,” he says, and when he walks away, he walks into the Empty.</p>
<p>canon divergent from the end of 15x19</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>this is what we’ve waited for</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The Empty is not quiet. Jack can hear it from Earth, in the way he can hear most everything now. He thinks it should probably be overwhelming, having Capital-G-God Powers now, but he feels almost...peaceful. Content to sit in the back of the Impala, listening, waiting. He’ll return Earth to the way it should be, he’ll bring back the people Chuck vanished, and when that is done, he’ll fix the rest. His mother had faith that he would remake the world, and so he will. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He lifts his hand to say goodbye, the street around them repopulated with people who won’t know they were missed, and before Dean says it, he hears it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Cas? </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hesitant, hopeful, tinged with dread. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Gruffer spoken aloud: “What about Cas?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jack smiles at him. “Everything will be back the way it should be,” he says, and when he walks away, he walks into the Empty. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The angels fall quiet as he passes. He shows them his plans, his offers, all while he looks for one particular glow of grace. (Some of the angels accept. Others go back to sleep. He will leave them with a more restful slumber.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jack!” Castiel reaches for him, grips his shoulders. “Are you—” He looks panicked and then, with a tilt of his head, confused. “You’re...“</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Kind of the new God,” Jack confirms, offhand, and he almost laughs at the way it makes Castiel’s eyebrows climb up his forehead. He grabs Castiel’s elbows and says, “I have some ideas to run by you.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Castiel stands in the bunker and wonders at being alive. He doesn’t stand still for long, hearing the outer door open and the tread of boots on the stairs. Jack has impeccable timing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sam and Dean are quiet until he meets them in the hall, and then for another second as the shock fades from their eyes—dozens of deaths between them all and it’s still a surprise to come back. Castiel doesn’t get out a hello before he’s crushed in Dean’s grip, and he’d worried, when Jack sent him back, that this would be gone, that it would be changed, and then Dean pulls back to look at him and he’s flushed and beautiful and </span>
  <em>
    <span>angry.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really, Cas?” he says. “As a </span>
  <em>
    <span>goodbye</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Castiel sees Sam in his periphery, looking between them with confusion, and can’t bring himself to look away from Dean. “It had to be,” he says. He’d explained that, hadn’t he?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It had to be,” Dean echoes, pulling him back in, closer and closer until their noses are practically touching and Castiel can feel the space between them like it’s alive. “This is not a goodbye,” he says, and it’s not their noses but their lips that meet in the middle, and Cas is drowning in the way Dean says, against his mouth, “You have me, you idiot.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh,” Sam says, and Castiel, angel of the lord, startles to look at him. He’s smiling in a way that makes Dean drop his forehead to Castiel’s shoulder and mutter </span>
  <em>
    <span>shut up, Sammy</span>
  </em>
  <span> without any heat, Castiel just smiles back, feeling dazed. “I’m gonna go meet up with Eileen, and then I think Donna’s trying to organize something with everyone, so I’ll see you then. I’m glad you’re back, Cas.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Me, too,” Cas says, attention grabbed again by Dean lifting his head. He misses Sam leaving. He doesn’t think Sam minds. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>and after this jack takes some of the angels from the empty and w advisement from cas they rebuild heaven and they all live happily ever after *jazz hands*</p></blockquote></div></div>
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